Toward the Torah, Soaring: Poems of the Renascence of Faith

by Louis Daniel Brodsky

Thirty Years in the Wilderness, So Far

It’s been decades, metaphoric millennia, Perhaps my entire adult life, Since words themselves,Vessels containing the sacred remains Of Elohim’s complete expressions, Not expurgated tablet-acronyms But incandescent insights, First traveled myriad light-years To my brain’s cave, Illuminating its opaque recesses With something approximating divine wisdom, Not sparks from flints striking in darkness . . . Almost three decades, anyway, Since I began relying on my Scriptural lexicon To describe the cryptic, lyrical epiphanies Imagination’s Mount Sinai echoes Every time I climb to those holy heights To receive His original whispers, Then register, as testament, in my notebook The blessed words He and I exchange, conversing face to face.

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Summary:

These are ecumenical poems of spiritual awe, by a Jew who returns to his heritage and faith after having strayed for more than forty years.

Praise:

Toward the Torah, Soaring achieves its purpose in grand style. It is a refreshing blend of ancient and modern Jewish imagery that moves with ease between two worlds. . . . It is the passionate record of a Jew who discovers his Jewish soul and cannot hold back his enthusiasm.— Rabbi Mark L. Shook

For Louis Daniel Brodsky writing poems is prayer. His brothers in this are Faulkner and Whitman, in whose plenitude of words we often find surprises. . . . So it is when Brodsky writes that it is as if "matter were just a matter of adoration," that mind, heart, and God blend into "One triumphant, endless amen." He observes that "dying defying infidels / May not be faith's best way to Paradise," but he revels in "forget[ting] my skepticism." These are poems of awe and gratitude. Over and over Brodsky dares to be open and vulnerable. He trembles, knowing "God is eavesdropping on His people." . . . This book is an exploration of self, faith, and the religious imagination. — Dan Jaffe, author of Round for One Voice